Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

in sestinas, of Collodi’s Pinocchio. It is not a

“translation”: the poet made it his own,

recreated from within in verses of admirable

freshness: an insular Pinocchio who seems to

have been born in Sicily, almost a homage of

the “pupi” and the paladins to their Tuscan

brother.

In 1927, while he was composing his

Pupu, Ganci Battaglia was co-editing a

periodical of dialect poetry, La Trazzera

[Country Road], whose publication was

allowed for merely a year by the Fascist

regime, which did not look favorably on

dialect literature. Decisive was the issue

dedicated to the figure and work of Vito

Mercadante. Ganci Battaglia’s partner in

running the review was Ignazio Buttitta,

from Bagheria (1899), who had published his

Marabedda (with Italian translation by Ganci